His father was dubbed ‘an enemy of the people’ as a Soviet prisoner of war in Germany, he was sent to a Gulag after the war, as result Zaitsev was barred from most educational institutions.

He well remembers the Red Dior moniker: “It was published in Paris Vogue that Zaitsev is the Red Dior, but my boss wrote to the magazine, We have 60 Diors! 60 designers in a fashion house and all are Diors, so do not exaggerate’. It was 1965. My personality was demolished completely.”